School Is In Session

Well the party on Gypsies the day after Scott's gig in Annapolis with the Lombardos turned out to be a grand bar scheme (you know one of those things that sounds so good in the middle of the night when you are hanging at a bar partially inebriated but that in the light of day doesn't really work - come on, admit it - we've all had them!), so we left our slip at Petrini's Boatyard in Annapolis (which was kind of a cluster f___ anyways given the approaching boat show) and made for the peace and quiet of an anchorage in Weems Creek just around the corner up the Severn River. Of course not before doing battle with numerous yahoo snailbotters who for some reason decided they wanted to play chicken in the channel with a much bigger and heavier boat - hello, are you really that stupid? Toss in a couple cigarette go fasts to make our day and we just wanted to get the heck out of there!!!

When we arrived in picturesque Weems Creek we were in search of one of the free Navy moorings but since we didn't get there until about 3:00 in the afternoon (we had to make sure the party on Gypsies was in fact a grand bar scheme before we felt comfortable leaving the dock), the moorings were all taken so we decided to just drop the hook. The houses lining that stretch of the Severn River and Weems Creek were spectacular and made for some wonderful scenery for the short trip from Annapolis.

We were pretty psyched to not have to go out into the Bay that afternoon as it was blowing snot out there and we gladly tucked into our little protected anchorage where we were blocked from the majority of the wind and waves!!!

Weems Creek Anchorage

Weems Creek Anchorage

For the life of me we couldn't understand the handful of sailboats that chose to anchor out by the Naval Academy seawall open to all the Bay had to throw at them - things that make you go hmmmm I guess.

For several days we stayed put in Weems Creek doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the peace and quiet and the increasingly rare glimpse of sun and warmth - it is after all October in the Chesapeake so we'll take what sun we can get. Doug and I sat out on the front deck reading for much of our lazy couple days (I had the pleasure of reading Chesapeake by James Michener - which was so much more enjoyable given that we now know and have steamed on the waters he writes about!!!)

Tammy Reading Chesapeake Out on the Bow

with our key decision being what delectable cocktail to indulge in! I made a big jug of rum punches (I am in search of the perfect recipe...so I must keep practicing!!) which carried the day often!! We had several unbelievable sunsets or really I should say moonrises as the sun set behind us and seemed to just disappear behind the trees yet lit up the houses on the opposing shore as the moon rose majestically beside the blazing houses - really a very kewl sight!!!
Tuesday morning came complete with a killer sunrise (the first we were up to see since appearing in Weems Creek)

and we had to break out of our sloth-like existence and head up to Baltimore - as I've said before, all good things have to come to an end and what you need to make sure is that there's something even better waiting for you. In our case, Tuesday night was the first class in our Emergency First Responder course at the Red Cross. So after a beautiful steam up the Bay where we passed gorgeous old lighthouses

Sandy Point Light

Baltimore Light

and an absolutely spectacular 150 foot sailboat named the Arabella which we had last seen in Newport, RI on on trip south last September,

S/V Arabella

at about 4:15 pm we set off from our slip in Hendersons Wharf Marina in Fells Point armed with our Google Earth map and directions on how to get to the Red Cross Center via public transportation - it went something like this - walk 15 minutes, take a bus, walk to the metro, take the metro and then walk 15 minutes to the Red Cross - nothing is ever real easy when you live on a boat and don't have access to a car - oh the things we used to take for granted!!! But that's OK, Doug and I figure not only are we going to learn lots and lots but we'll hopefully jump start getting back into shape as well!!

Well our first night we were introduced to our instructor - he is a really, really HARD core former marine field medic (so Vicki I'm sure we'll learn some really cool tricks to show you later) who still very much looks and acts the part - think he has about 5 different knifes that he carries on his belt along with his tactical stun baton, semi, several hand grenades and misc night vision paraphernalia (OK maybe I'm exaggerating but not by much). Oh Boy is this going to be interesting - plus there are only 5 of us in the course and I'm the only female. As he mentioned, I have my pick of partners - think I'll take Doug although he warned me that I am going to have to learn to carry Doug in a fireman's carry....what???? Seriously though it looks like an amazing course - the book alone which he has called our bible for the next three weeks weighs a ton and we have homework for Thursday's class - the first 8 chapters!!! WOW - it's been a long time since I've had homework!!! On the way home from class via planes, trains, buses and cobblestones, we wound up at Koopers Tavern in Fells Point for burger day - $3.50 burgers every Tuesday - Doug and I have a standing date......you know all work and no play....

On top of that, I just got the materials for my captain's course which are even more voluminous than our first aid book. Suffice it to say, the next three weeks are going to fly by - I'll try to do a blog as often as I can or as often as we get our nose out of our books long enough to do stuff that is cool enough to report. Just a quick note in the "you can't make this crap up book" - Doug submitted all the materials for his captains license before we left Baltimore several weeks ago thinking he was all set - NOT!!! Turns out that the doctor who signed off on his drug test (which was the second he took since it turns out they are only valid for 6 months and not the year we had thought - his old one expired a day before he filed - ugh!) was not certified - huh??? As we found out, the doctor's 6 year certification had expired without him even knowing it the prior month - unbelievable!!! So now we are scurrying around trying to find another doctor that actually has a certification that the coast guard will accept so Doug can take yet another drug test...how many times can you pay someone to pee in a cup for you....just kidding. I'm just glad he's working out all the kinks for me so that when I get all this stuff done, we'll know it's good to go!!!

This weekend we have class all day on Saturday (T and Th evenings and all day on Sat) but then we have lots of visitors coming on Sunday - Doug's daughter Lisa and her three girls are coming for the day and our wonderful friend Mary Ouellette from Rhode Island is coming on Sunday and staying until Tuesday. Can't wait to see all of them and you can be sure that we'll cut loose and have some fun!!! I know that's hard to believe but we'll do our best!!

Click here to see our location at Henderson's Wharf Marina in Baltimore

Row Me Home

No that is not indicative of the shape Gypsies is in but the name of the new CD our good friend Scott Kirby just released - it is by far his best yet and if you haven't checked out his music before, now is your chance - visit www.scottkirby.com. This CD which was produced by Russ Kunkel who played drums with James Taylor for many years and produced the last 6 Jimmy Buffett CDs is an unbelievable collection of new tunes and will just blow you away (Scott originally wanted the title of the CD to be Blow Me Down from the song Blow Me Down to Cayo Hueso which is a tune about Scott's family roots but he quickly changed his mind when Russ told him in very explicit terms that he was not producing a CD that had the words Blow Me in the title - as Scott has said, he's the sickest person he knows and he never even thought of that - sometimes its good to have a producer!!)

We spent last night listening to another rocking performance by Scott and Dave Edmisten in Annapolis, Maryland (man can he make a guitar sing - we love Country Dave!!) and heard many of the new tunes on the CD. Not hearing enough music for one night, we later came back to Gypsies at 1:00 in the morning and listened to the whole CD again...yes it was another ugly/crazy/funfilled evening with the Key West boys!!!

Scott Kirby, Dave Edmisten on his Right and Gary Green on his Left

It started out when we ran into JR and Rick, two guys we had met at one of Scott's gigs earlier in the summer at Solomons Island - we proceeded with them to a really cool little local joint they knew of (they live not far from Annapolis) called Davis' Pub for several pre-concert beverages - it was like being in Key West or the Caribbean where people just flowed outside and into the street with their cocktails (unlike Key West however we got chastised for trying to walk down the streets with our beers - what, they were in plastic cups???)

Doug, Tammy and JR at Davis Pub

We also ran into Lisa (a good friend of JR's and another great Kirby fan that we had spent time with at and after the Solomons gig) and then all made our way over to the Annapolis Maritime Museum which is where the guys were playing.

The Guys (Doug, Rock and JR) Have Beers at the Concert

Of course we then proceeded to run into tons more Kirby fans that we have gotten to know over the course of the past several years - how funny it is that we have all gotten to be friends this way - I guess cool people just gravitate to Scotty!! Dave was lucky to make the gig as he got delayed all day in the Charlotte, NC airport waiting on mechanical airplane problems and he wasn't the only one with plane issues - Danny Lombardo, his sister and her husband were all coming down from Manchester, NH to stay with his brother Tom and wife Diane - all hard core Kirby fans and good friends!!! Glad you guys could make it - we had a ball!!!

The Lombardo Clan

A typical wonderful music, friend-filled evening with Scotty and Dave - but the surprise of the evening came when we saw Scott's wife, Michelle, who doesn't normally "tour" with him. I'm not sure who was more surprised - us to see her, or her to see the "boat people" as she affectionately (we would like to believe??) calls us!! Little does she know that Scott invited us to spend Christmas with them again in Key West.....we're back Michelle (actually I think she grimaced a little when we mentioned that we were planning on spending the whole winter in Marathon not more than a stone's throw from Key West - I think she thinks we're a bad influence on her husband...now why would she think that???) Will we wind up in jail or in AA or both...odds are being laid as we speak!!!

Actually we think we are having a party on Gypsies this afternoon with the Lombardos - things got a little fuzzy as the evening progressed and we all migrated to the Boatyard, another great local haunt in Eastport (also known as the Maritime Republic of Eastport since it seceded from Annapolis - reminiscent of Key West's secession from the US!!) You'll notice that no pictures are shown (or were taken for that matter) once we got to the Boatyard in large part to protect the not so innocent and besides who could focus at that point!!! Plans were loosely made but it remains to be seen whether in Scott's words, it was just a grand bar scheme!

After a quick morning steam from Rock Hall that was windy and choppy but not too bad (at least until we got into the Severn River and met the naval armada coming out to greet us!!!),

The Naval Academy Armada Approaches

The US Naval Academy

Spa Creek

The Spa Creek Bridge

we spent yesterday walking around Annapolis which is a fun place largely dominated by the sailing culture that permeates the town and the Naval Academy (in fact I awoke this morning to the Naval Academy's band practicing for their big game today - no, it was not just the drums pounding in my head!!) We walked across the bridge spanning Spa Creek where we are docked and walked among cobblestones to window shop (that's all we do anymore!), had a frosty Kalik (a la the Bahamas) at a cool joint called Buddy's Crabs and Ribs

Kaliks at Buddy's Crabs and Ribs

and then strolled ego alley (so named because it is a small waterway right downtown where boats can parade in, turn around and parade out while all the tourists on the docks gawk - being boaters we just laugh when someone tries this without knowing what they are doing!!)

Ego Alley in Annapolis

When we passed an ice cream/candy store and saw a couple penguins in the window having floats, we thought of our boat buddies/ice cream afficionados from September Song - Stephanie and Bob - hope you guys are having fun!!!

The Ice Cream Shop in Annapolis

We left Rock Hall after four very productive days working on the boat - we finally have a watermaker that works (or so the folks at Spectra claim - guess we'll find out for sure when we hit the Bahamas the next time! ) But we (the royal we of course) also figured out the engine problem we had the other day when our engines both conked out in the Eastern Bay when we were heading out of St. Michaels - there seemed to be a loose connection between the fuel line and the tank which allowed air to get in the lines. Hank our friendly mechanic at Haven Harbor not only sealed up the connection on the port fuel tank but checked all the other tank connections. Hank also filed down a dent in the flywheel on the crankshaft which had been causing belt dust to accumulate when the port engine ran. Finally he took off three of our motor mounts to file them down so they don't sit as close to the stringers and also to weld on some support to the back joint - we've already had two snap (one when we were in the Bahamas where there was no convenient welder - of course!!!) So long and short of it is that Gypsies is ready to kick up her heels and get back out there on the waterways! After a final happy hour/wing night at the Harbor Shack, we headed out early yesterday morning - the guys at Haven Harbor were wonderful to us as always but it was definitely time to leave!!!

Wing Night at the Harbor Shack

Lawn Art in Front of Haven Harbour Marina

We plan on hanging out in the Annapolis area through Monday and then we'll head up to Baltimore where we start our emergency first responder first aid course on Tuesday evening!! Vicki we'll make sure to take notes of any cool things (like field tracheotomies or the use of large safety pins in emergencies!!) and pass them along when we catch up with all you guys down south!!

Fall in the Chesapeake

Not only is it officially Fall given we've passed the autumnal equinox but the weather down here in the Chesapeake Bay has taken a decided turn for the worse as a serious cold front has moved through. For the past week or so we've noticed leaves on the trees just starting to turn and yesterday in town not only did we see leaves actually falling but all the store fronts were sporting Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations - back up, where did summer go???

The temperatures have taken a precipitous drop - we had to wear sweatshirts yesterday and we've closed up most of the windows on the boat - even the cats are snuggling together in their fur coats - a true sign of the coming Fall.

But Autumn in the Chesapeake can also be beautiful - when the sun decides to show itself that is!! We had a nice steam over from Cambridge the other day although we did start out in sweatshirts, but by the time we hit our anchorage in Long Haul Creek it was pretty nice out. We passed some really funky fishing nets out in the Bay on our trip - what was so weird is that they were right out in the middle of the Bay directly in our path???

Fishing Net in the Bay

Once we pulled into our anchorage we were treated to quite a show from the spectacular blue herons - for one of the most graceful birds in flight it has the worlds most god-awful voice - how can any sound that ugly come from a bird that beautiful?? Guess it's just one of God's numerous ironies here on earth. We sat topsides with our traditional we've made it to another anchorage beer and watched as several blue herons glided across the water and perched themselves in the tops of the trees - now how they balance on the very tippy top branches is beyond me - I would have thought they were too heavy and normally we see these magniuficent creatures on a fallen tree limb much closer to the water. But not these two guys - think they were showing off for us!!

The next day we awoke to rain and cold but it wore off by early afternoon into a splendid day for exploring. We dropped the dink and headed around the spit into St. Michaels which is a very quaint, old town off the Miles River. You are greeted at the entrance to the harbor by the Hooper Strait Lighthouse, one of only three remaining screwpile lighthouses in America.

Hooper Strait Lighthouse

The lighthouse used to sit close to 40 miles south of its current location at the mouth of Tangier Sound . Coming in to the dinghy dock near the Crab Claw restaurant we were greeted by a whole group of ducks who frequent the docks and surrounding puddles!!

There are several historic houses that welcome you to the town that have overlooked the St. Michaels waterfront for well over a hundred years and have been preserved by the maritime museum.

Historic Waterfront Houses

We primarily walked the main drag of Talbot Street in search of cool bars - we found several but none that knocked our socks off or could be ranked even in our top ten - although Foxy's Bar did show some potential (though admittedly nowhere near as much as its namesake down on Jost Van Dyke but then again what could??)

Foxy's

It was good to see the town doesn't take itself too seriously as we passed the Broken Rudder Doggie Bar (without stopping in even).


Back on the boat for a quiet dinner and an early night since the farmers market in town was bright and early the next morning. We hopped in the dink for the trip into St. Michaels - you have to go out Long Haul Creek and into the Miles River for a little while which is normally no issue - yesterday morning it was pretty choppy given the increasing winds so it was a little wet (worse for Doug since he was on the side of the dinghy taking the waves!) While the farmers market wasn't a big deal especially compared to some we've been to, there was some great corn and lettuces so we filled our backpack!!

Farmers Market

Afterwards we took advantage of the morning sun to wander around the historic residential sections of town. St. Michaels is a really cute town with tons of houses of all architectural designs dating well back into the 1800's - what ties them all together are their wonderful colors (even white houses are trimmed in shades of red or green or blue), flowering landscapes and door knockers in the shapes of crabs, turtles and dolphins.

Turtle Door Knocker

We walked through St. Mary's Square where the St. Michaels museum is housed,

St. Michaels Museum

through gardens filled with cannons

and past a magnificent church.

Past the winery (which we didn't stop into on this trip - it was still only 10:00 in the morning not that it's not noon somewhere, but....), we wandered by a very large brick house where one part of the house was built in the 1780s and the rest of it in the 1860s - you could actually see the dividing line in the brick - very kewl!

House Built in Two Different Centuries

What was once a working port full of oyster tonging skiffs, crab boats and commercial sailing boats evolved into a tourist destination for people on the western shores. St. Michaels was also where Frederick Douglas lived as a slave from 1833-1836 - while there he taught himself to read and write and secretly set up schools to teach other blacks to read, escaping to the north to become an ardent abolitionist - Douglas later returned in 1877 as US Marshal for the District of Columbia.

Sorry - bloggus interruptus. We got a small break in the weather (it has been raining for about 18 hours!) so decided to do a quick boogie for Rock Hall - this afternoon's forecast doesn't look great but it sure looks better than the next two days which are calling for gusts up to 30 knots. All was smooth steaming until we got out into the wind and waves of the Eastern Bay (of course) and then we lost the starboard engine...and then a couple minutes later we lost the port engine!!!! Where's our buddy boat???? After that initial thought Doug started troubleshooting down in the engine room and had it narrowed down to a fuel issue but couldn't quite figure out what would have killed both engines - he switched to a different diesel tank - nothing!!! The manifold was OK because we could get the generator started. We called Haven Harbor to talk to one of their mechanics - oops it's Sunday and no one was in... Doug called Bob on September Song to see if he had any ideas - he did but we still couldn't get the engines going so we dropped the anchor in the middle of the Bay to at least slow us down - it's tough to set an anchor without engines but it helped steady us into the waves a little. We finally called Sea Tow and spoke with a Captain Dave - he went through some troubleshooting over the phone with Doug and told him to try one thing before he came out to tow us in - Doug went down into the engine room, pulled the primary fuel filters off the engines, filled them up with fuel to displace the air that had gotten in the filters and lo and behold, he finally got the engines started!!! Seems that somehow, the fuel tank we were using had allowed air into the fuel lines, something I'm told diesel engines don't like. Once we switched tanks and got the air out of the fuel system, the engines started and ran fine.

After letting them run for a little while, we skeedaddled for Rock Hall - the tough decision was knowing that the engines could conk out again at any minute did we brave Kent Narrows which is very shallow and as you'd expect from the name narrow, has a ton of current and we needed a bridge opened or did we go the longer route out into the Bay where we would be in deeper water without much current and we can go under the tall Bay Bridge??? After a gut check we figured we'd try Kent Narrows since it saved us 2 hours and we just wanted to get to Haven Harbor Marina where we knew we could get someone to look at the port tank and dip tube (which is what we narrowed the problem down to be - lots of air had gotten into the line we think)!!! Don't you love the "royal we"??? I find myself using it all the time when in fact it was Doug, Bob and Captain Dave who collectively troubleshot the problem - I just helped drop the anchor and kept the boat kitties out of the engine room!! In fact they were very brave and slept through most of the uproar!!


Well we made it through Kent Narrows (which really, really deserves its name - I think I had a couple inches on either side of the boat through the bridge!!) but the good thing was our "delay" in the Bay caused us to hit the Narrows at high tide so there wasn't too much current and we had plenty of water - oh and did I say the engines didn't quit on us!!!! The rest of the trip up the Chester River and into the Haven was uneventful and we are currently docked in the same slip we had when we were here for two weeks with September Song (they aren't in their slip though.....bummer).

Yesterday afternoon after a much needed coldie on the flybridge we ambled over to the Harbor Shack for all day happy hour - did you really have any doubt?? Steve our friendly bartender welcomed us back with several Coors Light and some BBQ wings - we feel like Norm on Cheers!! This morning the worker bees descended on Gypsies bright and early - Hank is in the engine room and Randy is re-installing our watermaker. After all the problems with the watermaker that we have had, Spectra couldn't find anything wrong when they took it all apart but they supposedly put in a new membrane and tested it for 48 hours and claim it works great. Unfortunately we are in the Chesapeake so can't test it easily ourselves so we'll just have to wait and see - Doug and I aren't too happy with them because we know that when we get to a place like the Bahamas where we really need the watermaker and something goes wrong again, we'll be too far from someone to fix it - UGH!!!! But nothing we can do I guess.....

We're not sure how long we'll be here in Rock Hall but I would guess at least a couple days especially with the weather. The wind is howling through the Haven here which causes the halyards on the several sailboats to whip against their masts causing quite a racket - but in a good way - at least you know you're on the water and short of going over and sinking the snailbots there's not much we can do!! Depending on when we leave, we'll head down and across the Bay to Annapolis where our musician friend Scott Kirby is playing on Oct. 2nd - we plan on surprising him - we're like bad pennies that keep turning up!! Should be fun.....

We're Having Way Too Much Fun!!!!

As Doug and I were doing the blog today after not seeing September Song behind us in our cute anchorage here on the Eastern Shore, we started laughing thinking of all the fun we have had with Stephanie and Bob and all the other friends we have met along the way. So we just thought it would be fun to break out a few pictures (OK maybe more than a few but there were so many to choose from!!) of the fun we have had over the past nine months with the September Song crew - I know Doug and I had a ball reliving these memories - hope you enjoy them too!!! Click here to see the slideshow

Here's to Good Friends....(OK it was a corny commercial slogan but somehow it's stuck in my head!)

We had one more fun filled day and night in Cambridge at the free dock with Tide Hiker and September Song - when you're with good friends even mundane things like re-provisioning can be fun. We had access to a truck on Wednesday thanks to Ann and Richard Strauss, who had met Norm and Vicki at the MTOA rendezvous - they live in Cambridge and had met Tide Hiker at the dock with the offer of the use of their car which we quickly accepted - thanks guys, it was greatly appreciated. It is one of the things about this life that I have come to love (well let's face it, there are tons of things I love!!! and next to nothing I don't like - OK maybe polishing the boat and cleaning the heads...) - all cruisers look out for each other and are quick to offer help of whatever kind to friends and even people they just meet. You figure you are all in this together and some day you may need help from someone which makes you go out of your way when you can be the offeror - don't you wish everyone in real life could be as wonderfully kind and gracious!!!



Anyways, we all piled into their truck (other than Norm and Doug who had the good sense?? to avoid the ensuing shopping madness!) for an afternoon of hardcore frenetic shopping - I think we hit darn near every store in the town of Easton, MD (home to Walmart, Target, West Marine, Lowes, liquor and groceries!!!)

Bob and the Girls Leave for Shopping Trip

But we managed to accomplish almost everyone's goals thanks to Vicki's pre-planning internet session and Stephanie's GPS unit (which by the way has a very annoying tone to her when you don't do exactly what she wants you to do!!) - all except probably the most important item - a new camera for September Song. How can Walmart and every other electronics store in Easton be out of cameras???

Back on the boat with all our new goodies stowed away, we had a final happy hour cocktail on the flybridge of Gypsies with September Song

Happy Hour on Gypsies in the Palace

before meeting up with Tide Hiker and the Strausses for apps and cocktails at one of the picnic tables along the water. What a great looking gang!!

Cocktails Before Dinner at Bella Luna

Then we were off to Bella Luna, an Italian restaurant in town which we had scoped out the day before - remember, home to the famous mosaic in the women's restroom?

The Famous Mosaic in the Women's Room at Bella Luna

Dinner was one non-stop bottle of wine and free flowing laughs or so it seemed - although Vicki did not succeed in her quest to find the best lasagna ever (although it was pretty good), it was a great evening with old and new friends.

Dinner at Bella Luna

It passed way too quickly for our taste but that's nothing new - seems like only yesterday we were meeting Stephanie and Bob in Marathon excitedly talking about our upcoming trip to the Bahamas. WOW - time flies when you're having rum!!!

Well we've put a lot of miles under our keels since then, have shared a lot of adult libations, great food, stories, beaches and bonfires, and have spent the past six months with the best cruising buddies ever!!!! But we woke the next morning with the sad knowledge that September Song would be heading south with Tide Hiker and we have to head north albeit just for awhile. It was a sad morning as we got in last minute hugs and kisses with the September Song crew (canine and human!! - we have spent a lot of fun-filed hours throwing Godiva her tennis ball and watching Cassie hunt for fish on a beach in St. Somewhere!!) before untying the lines and heading out the Choptank River - but not before promising to do whatever we could to meet up for Thanksgiving somewhere down south where it is warm!!!

Heading out the channel and then in to the Bay where we had to go in different directions was a very weird feeling - it's part of this cruising life, but not one of the fun parts. Everyone who follows this chosen life has wanderlust and goes in different directions at times but when you have spent as much time together and become such good friends as we have with September Song, it's hard to go different paths without knowing where or when you will see them again. But on the positive side of life (which is always where I like to be), we have been so lucky to have met Stephanie, Bob, Cassie and Godiva and we have had way too much fun to let them escape from our lives for too long - soon enough guys, you'll look behind you and Gypsies will be chugging along taking up its position as wingman!!! We're kind of like Bob in the movie What About Bob - we're not really gone, we'll never really be gone!!! and when I make cookies or anything chocolate or bacon wrapped pineapples, we'll think of you guys and raise our glasses, face south and toast to great friends and the next time we'll be together - we've had way too much fun together to be apart too long!!!! You guys are the best - thanks for all the fun and friendship!!

So now Doug and I are anchored in Long Haul Creek, just outside of St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay sitting out some rain before dropping the dink and heading into town. Even without Stephanie and Bob we feel the need to go scope out the best joint in town!! We will be here for several days and then head back up to Haven Harbor Marina in Rock Hall to get our watermaker re-installed. Hopefully it will finally work!!!!! Keep your fingers crossed for us - personally I'll believe it when I see it. From there we head down to Annapolis around the first of October to hear our Key West musician friend Scott Kirby play and then it is on to Baltimore for us for three weeks. We are pretty excited - we are going to be taking a 3 week first responder first aid/cpr course and I am going to try and finish up what I need to get my captains license (Doug has already completed his application and is just waiting for it to be reviewed by the coast guard - yes, he did pass both his drug test!!!) We aren't sure what the long road has in store for us but we know when we go back to work we want to do so in the marine field and having our captains licenses and extensive first aid can only help our cause (we think...) At the end of October we plan on making a beeline south to get out of the cold - I know I used to love the winter and all growing up in Maine and Massachusetts but no longer!!! After spending the winter in FL and the Bahamas, I'm a confirmed sun and warmth worshipper - I know all of you that know me will find that hard to believe....NOT!!! So we will make our way south quickly in search of the sun and hope to connect with SS sometime around Thanksgiving maybe in Georgia or northern FL - as always we'll play it by ear and see how things work out. This cruising life is all about the journey not just the end so we are continuing to love every minute and appreciate the little things along the way. Remember "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain!"